Video: The dancers have been hard at work, preparing for their stage debut
A 78-year-old woman is among a Notts group of 50+ dancers who are taking the stage with Peter Kay to raise money for Cancer Research.
“I am fulfilling a dream,” said Pat Bassett, who will be performing at the Nottingham Arena on May 12 as part of Peter’s Dance for Life dance-a-thon party.
“You don’t really have many opportunities to do something like this and it’s all been really lovely.
“We’re doing the finale dance, and I understand from the choreographer I’ve got a special skirt on and Peter will sneak up and take it away.”
Instructor Erika Sonnenvirth set up the Zumba Gold classes in 2013, which the ladies attend, after dancing her whole life and needing something new to do.
“I set up one class, then another class, then another class, and I’m so glad I did it – at last I’m giving back rather than just sitting behind a desk at a computer,” she said.
Erika now runs ten classes a week, and received a phone call a few weeks ago asking if any of her students would like to dance with Peter Kay.
“I didn’t believe it at first, it took me a couple of days to do some investigating,” she said.
“What I did was asked who’d be interested, and put those names in a hat.”
It’s a real once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
A staggering 45 of Erika’s dancers were interested, but there were only 13 available.
Penny Spice, who was one of the lucky few picked, had never danced before coming to the classes.
“I really like Peter Kay, so it’s a real once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dance with him.”
The show is sold out, which Penny added was a shame because her friends and family couldn’t get tickets, but thinks it’s great that it sold out.
The group will be performing to ‘Uptown Funk‘ by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars, ‘Sax‘ by Fleur East and Bucks Fizz’s Eurovision-winning song, ‘Making Your Mind Up‘.
Zumba Gold is a lower intensity version of the Colombian dance fitness designed for older people.
Carol Dickens, who has been coming to the class for seven years, said: “Since then I’ve lost weight and had problems with my feet, but as long as I’m doing something it’s great, and I love coming.
“I’m most looking forward to Uptown Funk, I’ve always liked that one – I like the funkiness.”
